01/13/2016

Predictions for 2016 Part I

This is part I of a two part series of posts which provides the Enterprise Mobility and Connected Devices Team’s predictions for 2016. The following predictions were written by: David Krebs, Eric Klein, Cameron Roche, and Matthew Hopkins. To contact the team, please e-mail us at info@vdcresearch.com

Point: Microsoft Progresses towards Gaining Critical Mass in Mobile

Microsoft’s Windows operating system currently accounts for less than five percent of the smartphone market despite many efforts—most notably its acquisition of Nokia—to revitalize its mobile portfolio. However, 2016 will mark the first full year of Windows 10. This new operating system enables applications to work across all Microsoft devices; thus countering an argument that critical mobile mass is necessary for robust application development. The Windows Continuum allows developers to develop for all devices in the Microsoft ecosystem, thus ensuring an extensive marketplace of enterprise and consumer apps. Moreover, smartphones have largely become commoditized, and with differentiation fading, Microsoft has a new opportunity to enter a static market with new, sophisticated, and affordable mobile devices. A window of opportunity is opening for Microsoft in the mobile space as the previous barriers to success are fast eroding. Microsoft should gain market share because Windows 10 creates a stronger “mobile” developer community that will design applications for sophisticated devices in various form factors that meet the needs of consumers and enterprises alike. Moreover, the novelty of Apple products is declining while their price remains the same, and the gap between high-end and low-end phones continues to blur. From an enterprise mobility perspective, in segments such as retail, we are witnessing a strong desire to create consistent experiences – from POS to clienteling – and the Windows 10 Continuum value proposition aligns well with those requirements. These dynamics present Microsoft with a unique opportunity in 2016.

Counterpoint: Mobile OS is No Longer Strategic to Microsoft

Yes, it is hard to consider something strategic that is teetering at 1-2% market share globally. However, following Steve Ballmer’s bombastic “My way or the highway” approach to conquering the mobile market, one of Satya Nadella’s greatest accomplishments during his still young tenure at the helm of Microsoft is recognizing that Microsoft can be successful and have a lot to offer to mobile users even though it does not dominate the underlying OS. This OS and hardware agnostic approach has seen Microsoft enable and optimize its core services – from Office to Skpe – to work on Android and iOS, the two clear mobile OS leaders. Not to mention that Microsoft makes $2 billion in royalty payments from Android OEMs. Yes, Microsoft would still love to see its mobile OS share grow and, yes, Windows 10 does offer unique differentiation with Continuum. However, outside diehard Microsoft supporters and those curious enough to make the switch, it is unlikely that adoption will be sufficient to propel Microsoft market share to double digits.

Enhanced Privacy: A BlackBerry Resurgence?

In the wake of the 2015 expansion of ISIS, hardware and software companies were pressured by governments to reduce encryptions or create back-end ways for monitoring potentially dangerous activity. The hardware and software communities will continue to push against these requests as their own quest for secure data continues in light of hacks and breaches. Expect to see more complex encryption techniques from software, mobile payment, and app creators. Additionally, expect to see hardware vendors leverage advanced biometrics. With the introduction of iris scanning into consumer-grade cell phones (e.g. Microsoft Lumia 950); look for further penetration of iris technology. Also, with fingerprint scanning penetrating both high and mid range consumer-grade devices, some rugged or semi-rugged devices may also see enhanced biometrics in 2016. Finally, the focus on privacy and security may also provide BlackBerry’s hardware endeavors with another chance at life. The relatively positive reception of the BlackBerry Priv and rumors about a modernized design on their next smartphone are indicators that 2016 will provide BlackBerry with an opportunity for success not only in software, but also in hardware.

2016 will be pivotal year for the technology industry writ large. Mobile and cloud computing will continue to disrupt how IT services are provisioned, as both personal and corporate computing continues to migrate to mobile platforms. However, how strategic is mobility really to today’s workforce and is the opportunity appropriately aligned with IT vendor’s initiatives? When it comes to customer engagement in segments such as retail then, absolutely, mobility initiatives or digital transformation (or whichever buzzword is currently trendy) are strategic and represent critical competitive initiatives. However, what about today’s workforce? Our research suggests that the workforce is increasingly mobile – estimated at approximately one third of the workforce or 1.4 billion workers. And, yes, the adoption/penetration of sophisticated mobile devices continues to scale – in 2015 global shipments of smartphones and tablets reached 1.6B units. However, when looking at how enterprises are truly leveraging these mobile devices to support or enhance mobile workflows the reality is that we are barely out of the starting gates. Outside of task or line workers such as warehouse workers, delivery drivers, retail associates, service technicians who rely on mobile solutions to support very specific and critical workflows, this opportunity has had a very slow burn rate. In fact, VDC’s research suggests that of the overall 1.6B smart device shipments in 2015, only 50M were deployed to support enterprise mobility workflows (this excludes the use of smart devices for email and basic productivity applications).

Yes, enterprise mobility is extremely challenging as is accurately conveying the ROI of many B2B opportunities. As a result we are seeing a shift among larger IT/technology powerhouses and their enterprise mobility initiatives. Standalone (enterprise) mobility practices will be a thing of the past as organizations realize the value of mobile as an enabling technology of a broader initiative (hello, Digital Transformation) rather than a standalone solution. This will represent a huge challenge for some of the pure-plays especially as some mobile capabilities – MDM representing the obvious example – become commoditized to the point that they are given away for free.

12/22/2015

In Q3, the total rugged mobile hardware market, sized as all rugged notebooks, tablets, vehicle mounted devices, and handhelds, grossed just over $1 billion in revenue shipments and has produced year-to-date (YtD) revenue shipments of $3.2 billion. Also looking YtD, the market has shipped over 3.1 million units across the globe. By the end of Q4, we will likely see YtD revenue shipments surpass $4.2 billion and YtD unit shipments near 4.3 million units. While the rugged market has actually seen a year-over-year (YoY) revenue contraction of 1.7% compared with its position in Q3 2014, it has also produced 5.1% growth from Q1 2015 to Q3 2015.

Figure 1: Rugged Mobile Hardware Global Overview

Breaking down this $1 billion market by form factor, we find weakened global demand for rugged notebooks, stagnation in revenue for tablets, and strong revenue shipments for handheld devices (the handhelds category includes devices such as smartphones and PDAs). As economic conditions continue to stabilize, this recent growth comes as welcome news to many hardware vendors who look to take advantage of increased economic stability and opportunities presented in the Americas and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions. For example, the growth in the handheld revenues occurred primarily in the Americas and APAC, with global YoY growth of 5.0% over Q3 2014.

While global tablet revenues shipments remained at similar levels to Q3 2014, EMEA generated more revenue shipments from tablets than from notebooks this quarter. One possible reason for this stagnation in growth is due to the increased competition from consumer grade tablets. One specific instance can be seen with the latest Microsoft Surface Pro, which has received relatively positive reviews and adoption from the enterprise market. Furthermore, both EMEA and APAC regions saw slight YoY growth in tablet revenues as the Americas saw minor YoY contraction. Rugged notebook revenues witnessed their highest quarterly performance on the year, but still had YoY revenue shipments fall in all regions, producing a global revenue dip of 14.9% between Q3 2014 to Q3 2015.

Overall, the rugged hardware market continues to maintain a strong global presence, even in spite of some areas of weakness and additional competition from consumer grade technologies. While this increased competition from consumer grade devices may seem like a hard hit to the rugged space, it can be counteracted with rugged vendors offering more advanced technological portfolios. Increases in processing speed, RAM, memory, camera quality, dual-OS capabilities, touch capacity, and enhanced security are all features which are slowly making their way from the consumer market into the rugged market space. As rugged vendors add these, and other, new technological facets to their mobile solutions, their specifications comparisons to consumer grade devices become far more attractive. Additionally, as economic conditions continue to improve, especially in the EMEA regions, rugged revenues will likely rebound for many form factors.

For more information, be sure to review our forthcoming full Q3 mobile hardware tracker and database, set to be released in late December. For additional information please contact VDC at info@vdcresearch.com. The author can be contacted directly at croche@vdcresearch.com or via his Twitter @Cam_Roche.

09/25/2015

Blending virtualization w/ EMM + some software defined security on the side

I had the opportunity to attend AirWatch's Connect event this past week in Atlanta, Georgia. The event was well attended and featured a nice mix of vendors on the show floor that ranged from small innovative mobile-first startups to industry heavies, such as AT&T, CDW, LG, F5, Sprint and Verizon.

As would be expected, AirWatch broke some news at its event:

Here's our takeaways:

Samsung: AirWatch announced an expanded reseller arrangement with Samsung—this is notable, as it shows that Knox is not dead (as some have declared). The two vendors may find opportunities to collaborate through Samsung's enterprise mobility services initiative, which continues to ramp and has a strong industry focus. This formalized partnership also shows that you can “have your cake, and eat it, too” (the company has also partnered w/ Google on its Android for Work program).

Mobile Security Alliance: AirWatch is demonstrating industry leadership via its Mobile Security Alliance; the firm had already had formalized partnerships with 9 of the 10 founding members (Proofpoint is the most recent vendor the company is partnering with). Each of the founding members (Appthority, Check Point, FireEye, Lookout, Palo Alto Networks, Pradeo, Proofpoint, Skycure, Veracode, Zimperium) is integrating more deeply via AirWatch's console and/or via AirWatch's device side agent (through APIs). The partners each bring very specific enterprise-grade security enhancements that are complementary to AirWatch's EMM value play. Alliance partners span three categories: device, application and network-focused protection.

ACE: AirWatch announced that the App Configuration for Enterprise (ACE) initiative that it is driving has grown to 44 members. Several notable vendors with innovative solutions around enterprise email (Nacho Cove), mobile application modernization (Star Mobile), and split billing (Movius) have joined the roster, but the addition of key SAP properties (Concur and SuccessFactors) were without question the most notable and important. Both of these applications are widely adopted and can now be seamlessly provisioned to AirWatch customers. It remains to be seen is ACE will propel the prepackaged application market—continuing to expand the ISV roster will certainly help.

Privacy First Initiative: AirWatch announced their Privacy First Initiative—the offering will help educate customers on privacy issues and provide end users with greater transparency on how their device (and applications) usage is being monitored. This is smart, and a capability that EMM vendors who compete with AirWatch possess. However, AirWatch is first to market with clear messaging and productized capabilities here. An example that was provided at the event was a scenario whereby IT wanted to ascertain an employee's location-going forward, this type of event can be fully audited/logged. More importantly, such events cannot be executed without informing the end user (policies are in place to information other LOBs, such as HR as well). The privacy feature will be available via AirWatch's console in Q4.

Platform Evolution: Supporting Windows 10 is a requirement; Microsoft's APIs have made it relatively simple to integrate with their Azure Active Directory product, which can streamline self-service device enrollment. AirWatch (along w/ competing EMM vendors) can also offer bulk provisioning for Windows 10 devices and support Win32 and Universal apps straight away. The company's integration also includes device management policies for native email configuration, per-app VPN connectivity and enforcement of enhanced security functions.

On the Same Page—Integration on Track. Still Plenty of Runway Left for EMM Vendors

In speaking with both VMware and AirWatch executives, it is clear that the companies are on the same page in their messaging—products such as NSX (more on this below) also show forward progress on integration. I also made sure to engage with several of AirWatch's prominent customers at the event—I was somewhat surprised by the slow progress in adopting mobile applications by several of the company's largest customers; however, overall, I got the sense that initiatives to expand applications were underway—many customers mentioned that they were busy in migrating/modernizing their legacy applications for mobile platforms.

Recognition that Mobile is Just Another Endpoint—UEM Strategy Required

The influx of new devices will require IT departments to reconsider how they deliver critical IT services to their internal end users, as the lines between personal and mobile computing will continue to blur and the number of “non-Windows” endpoints continues to expand. Device diversity is now common in most organizations and makes implementing solutions that have the flexibility to streamline the management of all devices, ranging from the ruggedized device deployments that are common in distribution centers, warehouses, and factories to consumer-grade devices that are finding their way into every business. AirWatch’s move into unified endpoint management (UEM) earlier this year shows that the vendor has been preparing to support the increasingly diverse range of non-traditional endpoints (e.g., ATMs, kiosks, smart vending machines, parking meters, POS devices etc.—as every EMM should be), but this has also signaled that the market has matured. Going forward, EMM vendors like AirWatch will be competing directly with much larger vendors (e.g., Accelerite, IBM, LANdesk, and Microsoft) as they begin to pivot to next generation UEM vendors. This will be a fascinating transition.

Gelsinger Brings Executive Gravitas

VMware's CEO Pat Gelsinger attended Connect for the first time, adding some VMware executive "heft" (even though Mr. Gelsinger is svelte ☺) to the keynotes. Gelsinger is clearly pleased with the AirWatch acquisition, and spoke at length about security: specifically on how VMware's virtualization orientation enabled enhanced "built-in" security opportunities. The need to enhance security, compliance, and auditing capabilities is required for most large customers, and is a key driver behind the company's foray into Identity Management and its Workspace Suite. VMware is placing a big bet (R&D and marketing $'s) on both of these initiatives.

VMware's Sanjay Poonen who heads the EUC division spoke about the company's "Switzerland Status"—its ability to work across the ecosystem and how its Workspace Suite solution could simplify application delivery (native, SaaS, Windows, or web apps) on any device with robust security. The Workspace Suite marries Horizon, VMware's Identity Management solution, with AirWatch's Content Locker and its ability to unify app delivery. VMware can also offer additional security options by combining their NSX solution (a network virtualization platform), which offers granular application level virtual network policy controls with AirWatch's per-app VPN capabilities. This brings an opportunity to virtualize data center components, using a software-defined approach, along with the potential to reduce hardware costs by decoupling compute, network and storage functions. The security benefit is the ability to restrict application access to specific segments within a network.

Kudos to AirWatch for drawing a critical mass of enterprise mobility—oriented vendors to Atlanta—the event's Expo felt like what CTIA's event's used to be.

09/23/2015

With the broader tablet market in the midst of an identity crisis one segment receiving increased attention are enterprise end users. VDC’s recently published 2015 Enterprise and Government Tablet analysis confirms this opportunity, forecasting annual growth of enterprise tablets – which represent approximately 15% of the overall tablet market – at 12.1% annually through 2019. A flurry of new products targeting the enterprise user from mega-brands Apple and Microsoft and specialty rugged mobile vendors Zebra and Xplore are directing the spotlight on this segment.

In comparison to other mobile form factors, tablets are an increasingly popular selection for enterprise line of business (LoB) applications. According to recent research conducted among enterprise mobility decision-makers, tablets are selected 33% of the time among devices issued to employees by enterprises in support of LoB applications. As the number of mobile deployments in LoB workflows continues to grow, consumer mobile devices are setting the benchmark for what any mobile device should look and feel like, resulting in the emergence of a new breed of enterprise tablets. Beyond enterprise-focused rugged OEMs, consumer-grade vendors are also turning their attention to the enterprise market through both their consumer portfolios and the introduction of more durable, enterprise-minded devices.

Enterprise Issued Mobile Devices Used to Support LoB Workflows by Form Factor

New Rugged Tablets from Zebra Technologies and Xplore Technologies

Zebra Technologies held its much anticipated Tablet Plus launch announcement on September 15 during which it unveiled the details of its new ET 50 and ET 55 tablet computers. As Zebra’s first new tablets to be released since the launch of the ET1 in 2011, notable features included support for both Windows 8.1 and Android Lollipop 5.1 in addition to Wi-Fi and/or LTE connectivity. Designed with a consumer feel and equipped for the enterprise, the tablets look to penetrate a still unsaturated enterprise tablet market. With a rugged design, comprehensive accessories to meet industry demands and unique scanning capabilities the ET 50 and ET 55 look to address a number of business use-cases, most notably those in the direct store delivery (DSD), field service, and retail verticals. However, a challenge for Zebra in our estimation will be aligning their tablets with the most appropriate use cases and target industries. Although tablets are being widely adopted in markets Zebra typically serves, these are mostly lower priced consumer devices. Demand for rugged tablets with the specifications and price points featured by Zebra’s new products is mostly concentrated in public safety, utilities, telecommunications and manufacturing environments, segments outside of Zebra’s traditional “sweetspot”. Another challenge, not uncommon in the rugged mobile market, will be the price points of the ET 50 and ET 55 which are $1,850 to $3,000, depending on the configuration. Although the benefits of rugged mobile devices are calculated by their lower failure rates, higher reliability and ultimately lower cost of ownership, even these target prices are high when compared to competitive rugged tablets.

Not to be outdone, Xplore Technologies unveiled the XSLATE B10, a fully rugged 10.1” tablet running Windows 8.1 (Windows 10 upgradeable), also on September 15th. The device is a fully featured tablet with multiple I/O and configuration options targeting field worker applications in transportation, manufacturing and telecommunications segments. Xplore has undergone some significant changes in 2015, none more impactful than its acquisition of Motion Computing’s assets in April. According to VDC’s most recent rugged mobile research, boosted by the Motion acquisition and strong performance of its existing business, Xplore was the leading rugged tablet supplier in Q2 2015. Now with the target on their back Xplore will need to provide staying power and consistency in performance – especially surrounding support services for its increasingly global customer base – in order to build on its recent successes.

Not the only new tablets in town

The Zebra and Xplore announcements comes on the heels of Apple’s release of the iPad Pro on September 9. The iPad Pro makes a stronger enterprise use-case argument as compared to Apple’s past consumer-focused tablets. Features including a large 12.9” display, the new A9X chip for increased speed and responsiveness and new iOS capabilities such as split screen viewing. In addition, accessories such as the new Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard enable the device to more adequately serve end-users in corporate environments. Borrowing liberally from Microsoft’s playbook (which will be introducing the Surface Pro 4 in October), this device is Apple’s first foray into the rapidly growing 2-in-1 market. However, at the end of the day the iPad Pro is an iPad running iOS at a price point that makes it competitive with Apple’s MacBook Pro. While iOS9 does introduce some interesting features that make the platform more friendly to corporate users – for example, multi-tasking and app management including app-specific VPN management – it cannot be considered an enterprise alternative to Microsoft’s Surface Pro or other 2-in1s powered by big OS/x86 architectures.

The enterprise limitations of the iPad Pro when compared with PCs is clear including the lack of file management capabilities and scripting technologies designed for PCs, compatibility with most productivity applications, lack of AD support and limited I/O options to name a few. At the end of the day this is just another, somewhat larger, iPad, albeit with a high end active stylus (pencil) at a higher price point. While one could argue a future where iOS or other lightweight OSes become the enterprise OS of choice and laptops are promoted to the same architecture and framework as the rest of the mobile eco-system, that is a generational change and not one just around the corner. That said, Apple is not standing still and is clearly serious about the enterprise opportunity. Initiatives with IBM and Cisco are breaking enemy barriers and compelling use cases for iOS devices (especially tablets) are being created, often transforming existing workflows. However, even with all of these enhancements, the iPad Pro is not a general purpose PC and cannot be considered a direct competitor to other two in one products like the Microsoft Surface Pro. Therefore we do expect Apple to encounter a bit of a positioning dilemma with the iPad Pro relative to existing iPads, 2-in1s and its own MacBooks.

What Makes a Tablet Enterprise Friendly?

According to a recent survey fielded by VDC Research among over 650 enterprise mobility decision makers, when evaluating mobile devices for line of business applications, battery life ranked predictably high on the list as did price and overall quality and reliability. With many of these tablets used in the field, wireless options—including embedded cellular capabilities—are critical (one key pain point for many enterprise and government tablet deployments has been sub-optimal GPS quality). In addition, overall ruggedness of the device—in terms of drop and water/dust protection—are key decision criteria for many applications. Surprisingly, however, security features such as integrated biometric capabilities did not crack the top five in overall importance.

However, tablets are often best characterized as a marriage of compromises. Therefore, for many enterprise line of business applications, of equal importance is the accessory and peripheral eco-systems developed by tablet OEMs and their partners. According to our research, protective cases lead the list of accessory requirements, in addition to solutions like payment and scanning sleds, multi-bay charging docks and vehicle mounts. In addition, highly application specific functionality, such as Zebra’s wireless DEX Bluetooth FOB (which addresses the huge headache and point of failure of cabled DEX solutions in the Direct Store Delivery market) often represent the keys to a well designed mobile solution.

Mobile Device Requirements for Devices Supporting LoB Applications

The tablet form factor has unique appeal for mobile workers supporting a variety of enterprise and government workflows and applications. While the overall tablet is going through its most recent identity crisis, opportunities for business and public sector applications remain strong and robust annual unit growth (for both rugged and non-rugged tablets) is projected by VDC through 2019. The tablet form factor addresses mobile workers’ need for a portable mobile device while providing sufficient display real estate to support meaningful applications. From forms-based inspection and data collection applications to using the tablet as a customer engagement tool in high value retail environments, the opportunities for these devices are substantial.

To view our recently released report on the tablet market please click here.

08/20/2015

A Continuing Partnership

Over the course of the past decade, Apple has come to epitomize the consumer side of technology, from the iconic iPhone to the Mac, which has made significant progress against the once-ubiquitous PC. In the enterprise, however, Microsoft’s legacy as the de facto OS for business remains a significant barrier that Apple continues to chip away at by virtue of its massive consumer appeal. Under CEO Tim Cook’s stewardship, there has been a notable shift to prioritizing the OS enterprise – take, for example, the partnership with onetime rival IBM in July of last year. Following the acquisition of EMM vendor Fiberlink, IBM has continued to enhance its enterprise mobility portfolio. Since announcing its partnership with Apple, the firm has been able to develop strategic and vertical-specific mobile applications for its clients while continuing to pursue its unified endpoint management initiatives by becoming more expert in managing both Apple’s mobile OS (iOS) and desktop OS (OS X).

Capitalizing on an increasingly Apple-friendly work environment

At face value, Apple’s products appear to be designed with the consumer squarely in mind, rather than the enterprise. However, with each successive OS update, key security and IT-friendly administration features continue to improve the company’s security posture, and have led to the expanded use of Apple products in business settings. In fact, IBM has been deploying iPads to its sales force since 2014, and has seen the number of Apple devices (iPads, MacBooks and iPhones) under management expand to 110,000 through the Mac@IBM program. The company expects the number of internal MacBook deployments to grow and is taking what it has learned from the experience to the enterprise market. Through its Mac at Work service offering, IBM will begin to support large scale Mac deployments as a managed service. (The company had been providing this service on a custom-basis for some time, but only recently extended the offering to all companies as a standardized service.) While PCs will remain dominant in the enterprise space for the foreseeable future, IBM recognizes that Macs are gaining traction in the enterprise, particularly among those now entering the workforce. As a result, not only will the demand for Macs in the enterprise grow, but tools to ease the process of deployment and management will be required. IBM has wisely partnered with JAMF Software for its Mac at Work offering, as JAMF’s Casper Suite is a widely used solution automating the deployment and configuration of OS X and iOS devices.

The Enterprise is Microsoft’s to Lose

IBM’s partnership could help Apple increase its presence in the enterprise beyond the mobile space to become a truly viable business OS. However, the recent release of Windows 10 could sap some of Apple’s momentum, since Microsoft’s next-generation OS has the potential to shore up its PC business while expanding its mobile presence. Beyond bringing back the Start button, the new OS allows applications to run seamlessly on all Windows devices, a capability that Apple has still not incorporated despite the similarity of iOS and OS X. The benefits of such compatibility from an enterprise perspective remain fairly ambiguous, as PCs tend to be used in a more isolated manner. However, the move could make mobile devices (especially tablets, given their larger screen size) more capable of handling business tasks. Furthermore, both Windows 10 and the growing role of Macs in the enterprise have implications for the endpoint management market tasked with managing the growing number of heterogeneous devices and operating systems used in businesses today.

The fact that IBM and Apple continue to expand their partnership is notable, and it places considerable pressure on Microsoft to evolve its enterprise mobility strategy – particularly its unified endpoint management products (SCCM and Intune) and Visual Studio tools for mobile application development tools. As the divide between consumer and enterprise becomes less and less distinct, the power of partnerships like that of IBM and Apple grow in significance. The days of Microsoft as the lone enterprise juggernaut are over, and the market – both partners and competition alike – is taking notice.

08/14/2015

Yesterday, the heads of Samsung took to the stage at Lincoln Center in New York to announce its latest devices – the S6 edge+ and the Note 5, as well as the release of its new payment system, Samsung Pay. With the advent of the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung has had to work harder to differentiate its product beyond being the default Android counterpart to Apple. The Note 5 manages to accomplish this handily with the newest iteration of the S-Pen, which provides substantive enterprise functionality. The Edge +, on the other hand, relies more on aesthetics diversity, as the functionality of the edge, while somewhat improved over the original S6 with the introduction of app shortcuts, remains limited and somewhat uninspiring. Although many reviewers have focused on the incremental nature of the developments of the devices and how they fare compared to the iPhone 6 Plus, the larger, more compelling story for VDC is the potential for Samsung Pay to dominate the mobile payment market and the continued evolution of Samsung into a much more enterprise-focused OEM.

The potential for Samsung Pay’s “Universal Availability”

Originally announced at Mobile World Congress, Samsung Pay emerged once again to take a prominent role in yesterday’s Unpacked event, complete with launch dates for the US and Korea. While Apple Pay succeeded in raising the general public’s awareness to NFC payment capabilities, its impact on retail has been limited to date. Despite steadily growing numbers, access to NFC-enabled payment terminals has been limited to a select group of partners and has encountered considerable opposition from major retailers, notably the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), which includes major chains like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Dunkin’ Donuts – forcing retailers like CVS to back down from unofficial support of Apple Pay following its announcement. In the aftermath of the initial dust-up, NFC payments have gained ground, but are far from mainstream at this point. Samsung Pay, on the other hand, nimbly sidesteps many of these issues from through technology it gained from its acquisition of Loop Pay in February of this year, which can be used with both NFC and traditional mag-stripe devices. As a result, Samsung Pay can be used with nearly all devices capable of taking credit card payments (including smaller peripheral devices like Square), giving the payment system tremendous reach and potential for widespread adoption. Samsung has further upped the ante by partnering not only with major credit card providers, but also enabling store-branded credit card, membership cards and gift cards, bringing the idea of a truly digital wallet that much closer to reality. With its backwards-compatibility to traditional payment systems, Samsung Pay is poised to leapfrog Apple Pay to dominate the growing digital payment market, providing Samsung’s flagship devices a much-need element of differentiation.

Balancing enterprise-readiness with consumer appeal

The delicate act of balancing a much more enterprise-focused device with consumer desires was clearly visible at the Unpacked event, where much of the attention centered on the new devices’ media capabilities, like its improved VDIS for video stabilization, and the introduction of Live Broadcast, which competes with real-time video streaming companies like Periscope and Meerkat. Although both devices feature enterprise-ready capabilities (like the integration of KNOX on all flagship devices) and the use of SideSync 4.0, it is the Note 5 that stands out as Samsung’s Flagship enterprise device. The Note series, more than other series, is designed with enterprise at the forefront, given its emphasis on multitasking and the use of stylus with the integration of the S-Pen. In addition to the ability to sign and print documents on the Note 5, BlackBerry’s aesthetics appear to have rubbed off on Samsung, as the company unveiled its first-ever physical keyboard accessory, which attaches to the screen to facilitate data entry.

Following the showmanship of the main event, it was the later, smaller B2B event that revealed the extent to which Samsung has devoted its attention to the enterprise. Despite the relative lack of fanfare, EVPs Injon Rhee (Enterprise Business Team) and Joe Stinziano (Samsung Business) discussed the strides made with the integration of KNOX 2.5, which further enhances the security elements of 2.0 from a carrier and IT management standpoint, to the Edge+ and the Note 5. KNOX, as Stinziano emphasized, remains their dedicated brand and its identity is built squarely around the enterprise and, when used in conjunction with Samsung Business seeks to provide end-to-end mobility solutions and security. As he aptly noted, having a smartphone is increasingly an indispensible element of mobility. Samsung also emphasized its partnership with Red Hat, which helps to provide industry-specific applications and mobile solutions. The latter is an important step for Samsung as it looks to counter the much-touted partnership between Apple and IBM’s MobileFirst which was announced last summer. With demand for consumer devices cooling, the pressure is on – not just for Samsung, but for the entire smartphone market to provide enterprise-grade, IT-friendly devices that also have consumer appeal.

The potential for Samsung to go from enterprise-grade to mission critical

With the rugged handheld market only now emerging from a protracted period of uncertainty, there is considerable opportunity for consumer-grade devices, particularly when complemented by a full suite of enterprise services and industry-specific know-how. The lack of success from the launch of Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld as the next generation Windows OS opened the door for Android and Apple alike, as many decision makers have opted to postpone refresh cycles and are evaluating less traditional options, including consumer grade devices. Most rugged OEMs have been quick to fill the gap with smartphone-like handheld devices that feature Android, but there has been a notable degree of erosion in favor of consumer devices. This, when paired with the green field opportunities of smaller organizations mobilizing for the first time presents a tremendous opportunity for companies like Samsung and Apple, which can capitalize on decision-makers’ and end-users’ familiarity with the devices and UI. To do so successfully, however, requires a level of dedication to the enterprise that goes beyond hardware to include services and industry-specific expertise and applications. VDC will be taking a more in-depth look at what this means for Samsung in our upcoming VDC View.

07/31/2015

Split-billing, the process by which mobile phone charges are divided based on certain criteria and paid separately by the employee and employer, is a capability that is increasingly attractive due to consumerization trends. Companies providing mobile solutions to employees face a growing challenge in identifying and separating corporate and personal use; this is especially difficult in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) or corporate-owned, privately enabled (COPE) environment. The issue remains divisive, with some employers expecting employees to pay for all mobile use—both corporate and personal—while others have implemented stipends, corporate phone plans, or reimbursements for corporate use. All of these methods have evident drawbacks, often forcing either the employee or employer to pay a disproportionate amount of the mobile costs. This issue became even more relevant in August of 2014 when the California Court of Appeals decided in Colin Cochran v. Schwan’s Home Service, Inc. that if employees must use their cell phone for work-related calls, then they must be reimbursed a reasonable portion of their cell phone bill. Under this ruling, companies in California will need to implement a strategy for reimbursement if they have employees using mobile devices for business purposes; failure to do so could result in costly litigation.

While California Labor Code Section 2802 may be unique in its wording and differ from labor codes in other states (with the possible exception being Massachusetts), the ruling could set a precedent that will entail a more national focus. In this vein, VDC urges companies who are moving forward in implementing BYOD policies to develop defensible ways to reimburse their employees. Unfortunately, split-billing technology by and large does not adequately address the needs of companies; however, some vendors have made significant progress in developing solutions that will solve employer mobile billing headaches.

Solutions Remain Few and Far Between

VDC Research has identified seven key players in the split-billing space and analyzed their solutions to determine which vendors will likely have the most success going forward.

AT&T: The company's attempts to develop a split-billing solution have come in fits and starts. While AT&T’s Toggle solution has continued to evolve along with the company’s AT&T Work platform, the company has yet to deliver a fully functional product (thus far).

BlackBerry: The acquisition of Movirtu in 2014 gave BlackBerry the technology to develop its WorkLife solution which elegantly separates voice, SMS, and data. (Samsung is also participating in this market via its partnership with BlackBerry).

Good Technology: By acquiring Macheen last October, Good has been able to quickly build a split billing solution that separates corporate app data usage from personal activity.

Movius: The company’s CAFÉ (Communications Applications Framework Engine) platform enables service providers with a means of quickly deploying applications to complement their core functionality of enabling users to have separate personas and different phone numbers for voice, messaging, and data (Movius has partnered with virtualization specialist Cellrox for this capability).

Mast Mobile: The company leverages Oracle’s billing and revenue management solution to provide a unique and comprehensive solution that allows an employer to implement split-billing for voice, messaging, and data. Founded in 2013, Mast is a young company and is quickly evolving its solution to include stronger enterprise-grade features.

OpenPeak: The company recently secured a patent in January for its split-billing technology. The technology enables companies to pay separately for data used through secure or enterprise applications in a container. OpenPeak white-labels this technology to AT&T.

Syntonic: Like Mast, Syntonic is also a young company (founded in 2013). The company’s DataFlex platform provides core split-billing and data usage analytics capabilities.

Foreseeable Change in the Near Future

As BYOD and COPE trends continue to grow and companies evolve their mobile initiatives and implement new applications, VDC expects demand for split-billing solutions to increase. Enterprises have struggled to catch up to mobile technology and have focused primarily on ensuring the security of their data and finding use cases for the technology both in terms of increasing consumer engagement and improving employee productivity. The issue of paying employees for their mobile phone use has been largely overlooked, with many companies hoping to avoid the conversation altogether. However, with California’s court decision setting a strong precedent, this period of blissful ignorance is quickly drawing to a close.

Unfortunately, the solutions available to companies to effectively identify and split personal and corporate mobile use remain slim and incomplete. This is due largely to the heterogeneous nature of mobile devices and their operating systems, as well as the need to work with both the organization and telecommunications providers. Consequently, vendors in this space have developed unique technologies that offer vastly different experiences and varying levels of split-billing competency.

The vendors, broadly categorized, fall into three categories: EMM providers, telecommunications providers, and split-billing-first providers. Firms that fall into the first two categories have largely either partnered with other companies with split-billing capabilities or acquired smaller firms with the technology to provide the solution. Predictably, split-billing-focused firms, while small, have had the most innovative solutions and have become acquisition targets for larger EMM and telecommunications providers looking to expand their offerings to compete with other firms who have developed the technology. VDC sees Mast Mobile and Movius as the best near-term targets for acquisition, given their comprehensive solutions, small size, and innovative technology. There is a broad range of vendors that that could fill the role of suitor, including Citrix, Microsoft, IBM, and VMware would all benefit by acquiring a split-billing solution as the capability would expand and complement these firms' mobile solution range. VDC expects rapid growth and consolidation in this small segment of the enterprise mobility market as companies look to further expand mobile initiatives while reigning in the costs.

VDC will take a deeper look at these trends in an upcoming VDC View.

With Eric Klein and Kathryn Nassberg

*Correction (8/10/15): This post was revised to note Movius' ability to provide split-billing services for data as well as voice and messaging.

07/28/2015

All eyes are on Microsoft with tomorrow’s much-anticipated and written-about release of Windows 10. This next generation of Windows could prove a key turning point for the rugged market – and the rugged handheld market in particular, which has seen fluctuating demand in recent years due in large part to OS uncertainty following the lack of success with Windows 8.1. The launch of Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld as a successor to the popular but aging Windows CE and 6.x began inauspiciously with delays and lack of device support from market leaders, with the result that the only devices available supporting the OS were from vendors limited market share. Unsurprisingly, Windows Embedded 8.1 Handheld’s market share has mirrored that of Windows Phone in the consumer market by languishing in the single digits behind Android and iOS. More significantly, however, the rocky launch has altered enterprises’ perception of Windows as the de facto operating system for line-of-business mobile deployments.

Microsoft’s stumble becomes Android’s opportunity

In the aftermath of Windows Embedded 8.1, organizations faced a difficult choice – undergo the migration to Android, or delay refresh cycles of their aging installed device base in the hopes of a better rollout with the subsequent iteration. Such a decision has serious implications for how front-end systems running on devices interact with corporate back-end systems. Rugged devices effectively facilitate the transfer of data between front and back-end systems, with the latter running on Windows; a transfer to Android complicates the relationship and requires additional coordination. This added layer of complexity has served to dissuade more conservative companies from migrating to Android. Organizations unencumbered by legacy systems, however, are looking increasingly to Android for its lower cost devices and familiar user interface. As a result, VDC’s data shows that Android has come to represent roughly 15% of the rugged device market, with growing levels of acceptance in the United States from larger organizations. A key turning point for the operating system came with the decision by Home Depot in 2014 to select Android for its latest mobile deployment, marking one of the first Tier-1 companies to forgo Windows for a large-scale deployment.

Success lies with the ISV community

One of the key factors that will ultimately determine the fate of both Android and Windows in the enterprise will be the reaction from the ISV community that supports them. While Microsoft has the advantage of scale and legacy to assist development for Windows 10, and seems to be positioning itself as a cross-platform productivity solutions company, it still needs active and engaged developers. Much of the development community has shifted towards the volume opportunity that comes with the popularity of the dominant mobile platforms (Google’s Android, and Apple’s iOS). This makes partnering with key ISV critical for Microsoft going forward – for this reason, VDC believes that it is likely that the company will pursue an acquisition of a rapid application development vendor with a robust developer community.

Time is not on Microsoft’s side

Although Windows remains the predominant OS in enterprise by a considerable margin, the gap has steadily narrowed in recent years with the growing emphasis on mobility and the explosion of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) as a viable option among smaller and mid-size organizations. The ability of consumer-grade devices to work in the enterprise has opened the door to Google and Apple, who have made significant investments in showing enterprise support through strategic partnerships. A majority of respondents to VDC Research support multiple operating systems for their line-of-business applications, and increasingly, the focus of development is for Android and iOS. Putting an end to Android’s recent success in the enterprise-rugged space and regaining market share will depend largely on Microsoft’s ability to ensure that the OS is implemented quickly in business environments. Time is not on their side, with patience increasingly running thin and adoption rates growing for Android as it shows it suitability as an alternative OS. To quickly integrate the new OS, Microsoft will need to work tightly with OEM and ISV partners to ensure rugged devices work effectively with the new OS and applications are supported. Zebra, a dominant player in the rugged space, announced that it will have several products running Windows 10 by the end of 2015. However, these products will be joined by others running Android; illustrating the company’s effort over the past few years to incorporate both operating systems so as to meet various industry demands.

A last chance to dominate?

Windows 10 represents a key turning point for Microsoft, particularly as the company is doubling down on software, given its most recent round of layoffs that cut 7,800 jobs from the phone business and writing off nearly all of the value from its Nokia acquisition. After considerable pushback on Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone from the consumer and enterprise markets, Microsoft can ill-afford another misstep. Any further stumbles will place the OS in jeopardy of losing market dominance and leave the playing field wide open for the competition in both the rugged and enterprise-issued markets.

07/16/2015

At Qatalyst Global’s Managing BYOX & End User Mobility conference, organizations such as PG&E, Fairfield University, and Aetna shared their experiences integrating mobile initiatives, while vendors including Apperian, Bluebox Security, Dilligent, IBM, and WorkSpot, explained how their mobile services could increase company productivity and efficiency. We had the opportunity to speak with several of the end users in attendance about their BYOx approaches — not surprisingly, most were still challenged by the complexities of implementing BYOx policies and proving the ROI of these initiatives. The Fairfield University’s CIO, Paige Francis gave a great presentation that illustrated how heavily mobile technology was relied on by her student body and how important it will be going forward to understand the expectations of future generations of workers and customers. Francis spoke at length about the difficulties of meeting student and employee technology needs in a campus environment and how Service Oriented Architecture concepts now applied to mobility (she described this as “Mobile Oriented Architecture”). We agree, as mobile devices and services will need to seamlessly interact with one another independently.

End Users Know They Need to Deliver a Positive User Experience

Companies at the conference were at all different stages of their mobile journey exemplifying the differing pace of adoption. Some companies stood out, PG&E for example has developed and deployed a number of mobile applications to enhance field service operations as well as meet customer needs. Interestingly, the utilities industry, which had remained fairly stagnant in regards to technology over the past few years now stands positioned to develop rapidly as mobile and IoT technologies are incorporated to enhance business processes. Other industries such as health care have been keen to embrace mobile technologies, but issues surrounding contractual and regulatory obligations complicate initiatives. However, a major take away from the conference has to be that keeping it simple in both development and deployment is essential. Focusing on the end user — how the end user will use and experience the technology — can guide the process fairly completely, while financial constraints remain important considerations. As Steve Damadeo — the IT Ops Manager for Festo — explained, BYOD and mobile applications provide ample cost-saving opportunities as well as productivity gains if implemented with a focus on cost containment and user experience.

Privacy Considerations Important Going Forward

Providing a unique and outside perspective on the legal obstacles facing multinational corporations’ mobile plans was VDC Research’s own Eric Klein. His presentation touched on one of the many impediments to crafting an effective technology policy that incorporates mobile; from security and privacy concerns to regulatory and user experience issues. Achieving compliance with laws and regulations that are often archaic in relation to modern technology can be cumbersome. Case law as explained by my colleague Eric Klein has failed to keep up with technological development – particularly with regards to mobile technology. Baker & McKenzie’s data privacy and security expert Harry Valetk was in agreement, and spoke at length about this topic and echoed many of these sentiments. While it will take time, the case law will catch up, Valetk predicted that “regulators and courts will apply the laws as they are today regardless of if they more accurately regulate the technology of 20 years ago”.

07/08/2015

The company is putting all the building blocks together to potentially become a significant enterprise mobility solutions and services player.

In 2014, Samsung watched its mobile sales drop 21 percent as increased competition further ate away at the company’s market share in the smartphone space. Apple’s consumer-friendly iOS garnered greater control of the high-end smartphone market with the company’s release of a “large-display” iPhone 6 and 6 plus. At the other end of the spectrum, low-end manufacturers such as Xiaomi captured Samsung’s market share—particularly in emerging markets—by producing similar devices with lower prices. As a result, the rapid evolution of the smartphone market has left Samsung squeezed between, and battling Apple and low-end manufacturers. Cognizant of the adverse trend moving against them and keen for alternative avenues of differentiation, Samsung has for several years been increasing its mobile presence in the enterprise space—a market still fairly open for penetration following the decline of BlackBerry and relative neglect by Apple.

A Move into Business Services

When it comes to enterprise mobility, the consumer still rules. The proliferation of “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies throughout the business world requires that a company produce devices sought after by consumers. Given the highly-competitive consumer device landscape, Samsung spent the past few years developing partnerships, software-capabilities, and enterprise mobility expertise to augment their hardware business, addressing the security, management and support requirements critical to enterprise decision makers. To augment these partners, Samsung is also investing in enterprise mobility service capabilities and in January launched the Samsung Business Services program. This program takes a three-tiered approach to addressing the demand for mobility in the enterprise space and builds upon unique capabilities such as KNOX that Samsung has long been developing. At a high level, Samsung intends to be a technology collaborator with an extensive ecosystem of partners to provide mobile solutions to customers.

However, while providing comprehensive support to enterprise customers is helpful and desired by some companies, it will not alone significantly increase the demand for devices. Moreover, the idea that companies desire a seamless and integrated system for managing all things mobile is not revolutionary, with many enterprise IT powerhouses – for example Microsoft or IBM – increasingly well positioned to deliver these capabilities. The key challenge for a company like Samsung – that continues to derive the majority of its mobile revenues through hardware sales – is whether they can affect enterprise decisions in today’s heterogeneous/multi-platform environment. Our contention is that as enterprise’s mobility initiatives continue to become more strategic – and mobile deployment models shift from BYOD to COPE (or more enterprise influenced mobile decisions) – that these enterprise investments and initiatives will provide greater returns.

A Vertical Focus for a Meaningful Impact

Another layer of Samsung’s enterprise approach is establishing vertical or industry specific know-how. Acknowledging that to become “business critical” requires, by in large, focusing on the nuances of certain industries, and creating specific solutions to industry problems; Samsung has tailored its products to the education, healthcare, government, hospitality, and retail industries. These large verticals possess certain characteristics and unique business processes that are in need of technological and mobile solutions. By addressing the concerns of these industries—security, regulation, rapid technological change, etc. — Samsung has the opportunity to become ingrained in business processes, and thus become “business critical”. Today’s these capabilities are still largely a work in process as Samsung invests in building out this institutional knowledge. Given the complexities and nuances associated with many vertical opportunities, this will require staying power from Samsung.

Another critical cog in Samsung’s enterprise push is their extended partnership with BlackBerry. Samsung has integrated BlackBerry’s mobile-billing and encryption technologies into its KNOX platform, enhancing its position in the high end of the security bracket in highly regulated industries. Following the collaboration on the BlackBerry SecuTablet – which features Samsung’s S 10.5 hardware and Knox for device encryption, secure apps and software from BlackBerry and app wrapping technology from IBM – new rumors are surfacing around a Samsung-BlackBerry co-developed Android smartphone. Depending on the success of these initiatives, even closer ties between both organizations is not out of the question.

Finally, the partnership between Red Hat and Samsung, to a certain degree similar to the one between Apple and IBM, looks to provide industry-specific applications that address business concerns and needs. Ultimately this is all about mobile applications and mobilizing enterprise workflows, an area that has been lacking. Leveraging Red Hat’s mobile application platform and optimizing enterprise specific applications on Samsung devices will be central to this relationship. However, the ability of these applications to address business problems will largely go under-utilized unless Samsung can reach the decision makers at these companies. Further in-roads must be made to gain the ear of decision-makers, whom often lie outside the IT department.

Staying the Course

That Samsung is looking to capitalize on mobility demands from the enterprise space is not surprising. The company is putting all the building blocks together to potentially become a significant enterprise mobility solutions and services player. They are clearly not alone with these pursuits, with a more enterprise savvy Apple and a resurging Microsoft – among others – representing key challengers. Microsoft will be particularly interesting to follow with palpable anticipation surrounding Windows 10, their OneDrive for Business solution and leading enterprise identity and access management assets. With the enterprise mobility ‘debate’ shifting towards content and identity management, Microsoft’s position is especially strong.

With much of the enterprise mobility opportunity still ahead of us, Samsung is increasingly well positioned. However, as a company that interprets success on quantity of devices sold, it will be critical for Samsung to set realistic expectations for their enterprise strategy. Staying power and focus will be critical.

Be sure to check out our upcoming VDC View as we dig deeper into this topic!